To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.
~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.
~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
The world could lose half of its best coffee-growing land under a moderate climate change scenario. Brazil, which is the currently world’s largest coffee producer, will see its most suitable coffee-growing land decline by 79%.
That’s one key finding of a new study by scientists in Switzerland, who assessed the potential impacts of climate change on coffee, cashews and avocados. All three are important globally traded crops that are mainly produced by small-scale farmers in the tropics.
Coffee is by far the most important with an expected revenue of US$460 billion (£344 billion) in 2022, while the figures for avocado and cashew are respectively $13 billion and $6 billion. While coffee mainly serves as a stimulatory beverage, avocados and cashews are widely consumed food crops that are rich in monounsaturated plant oils and other beneficial nutrients.
Coffee requires a tricky mix of climate, land and soil conditions and can’t just be grown anywhere in the tropics. Grüter et al / PLOS, CC BY-SA
The major take-home message from the new study is that predicted climatic changes are likely to result in significant declines in the amount of land suitable for growing these crops in some of the main regions where they are currently cultivated. In turn this could impact both growers and consumers around the world.
Many areas will become less suitable for coffee if there is moderate climate change (neither worst nor best-case emissions scenario). Grüter et al / PLOS, CC BY-SA
To date, most research into the future impacts of climate change on food has focused on principal staple crops such as wheat, maize, potatoes and oilseeds that are grown in temperate regions. This has mirrored the tendency of climate scientists to focus on the potentially severe impacts of climate change on temperate ecosystems, especially due to altered temperature and rainfall patterns.
In contrast, there has been less work on the tropical ecosystems that constitute about 40% of global land area where more than 3 billion people make their living, with as many as 1 billion more people expected to do so by the 2050s.
The tropics also sustain vast reservoirs of biodiversity, as well as areas to grow many important crops that provide income and food for their huge human populations. The new research confirms and significantly extends findings from the relatively small number of existing studies on coffee, cashew and avocado crops.
An important innovation in the study is to examine land and soil parameters in addition to purely climatic factors such as temperature and rainfall patterns. This enables them to provide a more nuanced view of future impacts that might significantly change the suitability of some tropical regions for growing certain crops due to changes in factors such as soil pH or texture.
Different factors limit the coffee-suitability of different regions. The Amazon basin has a suitable climate but the soil is too acidic. Jair Ferreira Belafacce / shutterstock
The new study complements other recent research into oil palm. Though controversial and often linked to deforestation, oil palm is still one of the most important tropical crops in terms of human nutrition, helping feed more than 3 billion people.
Colleagues and I recently reviewed several modelling analyses of how climate change could impact the incidence of disease and overall mortality in oil palm. The stark conclusion was that tree mortality is likely to increase significantly after 2050, possibly wiping out much of the crop in the Americas. In addition, incidence of the major stem rot disease was predicted to increase drastically across south-east Asia.
Surprising extent and complexity
Collectively, these studies are beginning to reveal the surprising extent and complexity of the impacts of climate change and associated factors on some of the most grown crops in the tropics. Importantly, the impacts will not be distributed evenly and some regions might even benefit from climate change.
For instance, parts of China, Argentina and the United States are likely to become more suitable for coffee growing just as the likes of Brazil and Colombia see their land become less suitable. It is likely that many of these changes are now “locked in” at least for the rest of this century, irrespective of the disappointingly sluggish response of global leaders in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Therefore, it will be necessary for us to adapt to the ongoing changes in the tropics, for example by shifting cultivation of specific crops to different regions where climate impacts will be more benign. However, it seems likely that, whatever mitigation measures are adopted, many tropical crops will become scarcer and hence more expensive in the future. In terms of coffee, it might even move from a cheap everyday beverage to a prized treat to be sampled on special occasions, rather like a fine wine.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
The French and Russian presidents meet by video. Putin told Macron that his government does not want to escalate the tension over Ukraine. Russian government photo via Sputnik.
Poll shows that a majority in the USA want diplomacy, not war, with Russia over Ukraine
A majority of Americans want the Biden administration to work with Russia toward a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis in order to avert a potentially catastrophic war, according to the results of a new poll published Friday.
According to the Data for Progress survey of 1,214 likely US voters, 58% of overall respondents “somewhat” or “strongly” support the Biden administration “striking a deal with Russia to avoid war over Ukraine.”
Among Democrats, support for such a move was 71%, while 51% of Independents and 46% of Republicans agreed with the prospective policy.
The poll’s findings echo pleas from US progressives, who urge President Joe Biden to pursue a diplomatic solution to the crisis, in which the world’s two foremost nuclear powers are involved.
“There is no military solution,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) asserted Wednesday.
The new poll comes as US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a Friday press conference that conflict with Russia “is not inevitable” and that there was still time for a positive diplomatic outcome.
Common Dreams reported Friday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that there will be no war if the United States does not escalate the conflict.
“If it depends on Russia, then there will be no war,” he stated. “We don’t want wars. But we also won’t allow our interests to be rudely trampled, to be ignored.”
Citing security concerns—including decades of US provocation such as expanding NATO—Russia has reportedly amassed around 100,000 troops near the border of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting the Western-backed Ukrainian government since 2014.
Russia is seeking a guarantee that Ukraine will not be admitted into the NATO alliance, which Moscow views as inherently anti-Russian. The United States refuses to provide such a guarantee.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that any Russian invasion of Ukraine would be “met with a severe and united response” from NATO. While the Biden administration has suggested that such a response would be primarily economic in nature, the Pentagon announced earlier this week that 8,500 US troops were being placed on alert, ready to quickly deploy to Eastern Europe in the event NATO activates a rapid reaction force.
According to a Kremlin official quoted by Reuters, Russian President Vladmir Putin spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron Friday, telling him that “he wanted to continue dialogue and that we needed to work towards the implementation of the Minsk accords,” a reference to the quadrilateral talks among France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine on the war in eastern Ukraine.
“He said he didn’t want an escalation,” the Russian official said of Putin, but added that the United States and NATO have still failed to address Moscow’s primary security concerns.
On Thursday, Biden spoke with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his Ukrainian counterpart, and “reaffirmed the readiness of the United States along with its allies and partners to respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,” according to a White House readout of the conversation.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.
~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.
~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
How much of a break will the Transito cops get this year? Surely some, but not all that much. Despite the ban on big parties and culecos, a lot of people will head to cottages or family or friends’ homes in the Interior. The big jam headed toward Las Tablas is likely to be the most reduced of all of this. Archive photo of Carnival traffic headed west from La Chorrera before the epidemic hit by Eric Jackson.
It should have been a no-brainer…
by Eric Jackson
With Panama’s fourth COVID wave still well underway — this year the more contagious but less deadly omicron strain — it should come as no surprise that Carnival would have to be called off again.
A no-brainer? Do we have somebody accusing our political elites and tourism investors of having brains?
Really, though, most such folks do understand. Just as do the hardly educated campesinos know about agricultural diseases leading to painful decisions to lose crops or cull herds and who draw the connection to human epidemics, actually. The young and reckless, the gambling addicts, the political fanatics in medical denial, those willing to risk all to save a failing business? Those latter we also do have, and it’s for fear of them that a bunch of politicians wanted to shift the onus of Carnival’s cancellation onto someone else.
Would the mayor of Penonome want to be accused of causing the business hit of no Water Carnival again this year? Mayor Paula María González was issuing no decrees, hinting that the festivities might have to be called off but expressing fear that if she issued a decree at odds with word from on high it might be illegal. The city council bluntly demanded cancellation for this year. The mayors of Aguadulce and Nata banned this year’s Carnival pursuant to their own local powers.
In Las Tablas, site of the nation’s traditionally biggest party, the mayor called for a Carnival ban but waited for the national government to impose it. Business is terrible and won’t get better anytime soon, such that no politician wants to be accused of destroying local business just because of an epidemic in which most people who caught the virus didn’t die. Surely SOMEBODY will run for office in 2024 on a platform of accusing his or her opponent of needless panic that closed businesses for good.
At almost the last moment, considering the purchases and permits that Carnival businesses need in anticipation of the usual rush, the Ministry of Health came down with a decree on January 27. No dancing, music, water spray, parades or crowds between Friday, February 25 and Sunday, March 6. That includes the traditional Carnival days, and also the Carnavalitos celebrated the weekend afterward in some places. Forget it, unless you have the political connections to ignore the decree and are that stupid. The party is off, with nearly a month’s notice.
Will people go en masse to the beaches and mountains anyway? There is bound to be some of that, but both officially and unofficially the next few weeks will partly determine how much. An uptick in the epidemic may prompt futher official restrictions, and surely would keep a lot of people from leaving their homes without a strong need to do so. A diminishing plague may convince people that it’s safe to go somewhere. Stay tuned.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Berly Lue, a recruiter assigned to Navy Talent Acquisition Group (NTAG) Houston, the 2021 CNRC Enlisted Recruiter of the Year. Photo by Photo By Chief Petty Officer Joshua Keim.
Houston recruiter selected as CNRC FY-21 Recruiter of the Nation
by Chief Petty Officer Joshua Keim — Navy Talent Acquisition Group Houston
Commander, Navy Recruiting Command (CNRC) recently named Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Berly Lue, a recruiter assigned to Navy Talent Acquisition Group (NTAG) Houston, the 2021 CNRC Enlisted Recruiter of the Year (EROY) – active component (AC). Colloquially referred to as the recruiter of the nation, Lue outperformed more than 3,000 of her peers at 26 NTAGs across the nation to earn her spot as Navy recruiting’s top gun. During a year with as many consequential and unforgettable events as the turbulent year of 2020, Lue met challenges head-on with unrelenting discipline and poise earning NTAG Houston Nuclear Recruiter of the Year and AC Talent Scout of the Year along the way.
A versatile and well-balanced Sailor with a holistic approach to recruiting, Lue also proved to be a juggernaut during the NTAG Houston Junior Sailor of the Year board, edged out by her competition by only a handful of points. She continued to show consistent growth and initiative as a leader and community servant throughout the past year while focusing on building authentic relationships with applicants and her peers.
“It feels unreal,” said Lue. “It feels like it crept up on me. I know I’ve been on top of recruiting, but I didn’t realize I was the number one, especially for the nation. I just have a natural drive to want to work hard. I can’t say things have always been easy for me to grasp, so I just try to blow everything out of the water.”
In her first 30 months at NTAG Houston, Lue grossed 107 new contracts, and if the six Future Sailors she has waiting to ship to boot camp make it to Great Lakes at the end of January, she’ll be only one net contract away from the coveted Centurion award. To earn the Centurion award, a recruiter must net 100 new contracts in one tour of recruiting; a feat only five NTAG Houston Sailors have accomplished since 2014 and only one in the past three years. She also has a production per recruiter (PPR) score of 3.6, which means Lue has averaged nearly four new contracts per month for the past 30 months – well beyond the current national average score of approximately 0.78. With all her accolades and recognition as a recruiter, Lue hasn’t lost sight of the impetus that drives her and the people who helped her make it this far.
“This wasn’t just me,” said Lue. “Our small team at [Navy Recruiting Station] Humble thrived together, and we did what we needed to do especially during the more difficult times with COVID-19. My success comes from teamwork and the thirst to want to help make a change in someone’s life. I didn’t even think I would be good at recruiting when I got here. Coming here as a reservist Master-at-Arms (MA), I was totally out of my comfort zone, but I’ve surprised myself, and I have a lot to be proud of. I also have a few mentors that I constantly reach out to. They’ve been behind me this entire time and are a part of my success.”
With so many achievements in recruiting, Lue is often asked if she plans to remain an MA or join the navy counselor career recruiter force (NC CRF).
“I’ve been in deep thought lately about my career and time with recruiting. I would love to make MA1, and I’m nearly done with my [bachelor’s] degree. I’m focused on those right now. I know I can walk away from this feeling like I’ve left a mark that others can try to match. Until then, I’m still going to be pushing these applicants, and with all this ending fiscal year 2021, I’m ready for another challenge.”
Whether she decides to join the CRF or resume working her way up the leadership ladder as an MA, Lue is certain to continue carving her own path to success and impacting lives in the process.
NTAG Houston has 34 Navy recruiting stations covering more than 44,000 square miles in rural and metropolitan areas around Southeastern Texas and Western Louisiana. NTAG Houston has two Talent Acquisition Onboarding Centers – TOAC Space City and TAOC Bayou City – and employs more than 300 recruiters, support personnel and civilians. Follow NTAG Houston on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NTAGhouston) and Instagram (@NTAG_Houston).
Navy Recruiting Command consists of a command headquarters, three Navy Recruiting Regions, and 26 Navy Talent Acquisition Groups that serve more than 1,000 recruiting stations across the world. Their combined goal is to attract the highest quality candidates to assure the ongoing success of America’s Navy.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.
~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
The banking district office is history, as the Panama Papers notoriety shut down the Mossack Fonseca law firm. The Public Ministry objects to the term “Panama Papers” and insists upon Mossack Fonseca Papers, but that’s a hard sell to a world that has seen dozens of high-profile cases that have ruined careers of the powerul and embarrassed the rich while Panama was taking no action. Public Ministry archive photo.
After a nearly six-year investigation, Panama Papers
money laundering schemes are set for trial in Panama
by Eric Jackson
The show is set to begin on the morning of November 15 at the Balboa Theater. The balcony may be crowded with reporters from the national and international press. Surely the guards won’t allow spectators to use the balcony to throw peanuts at the defendants, let alone the prosecutors or judges.
In April of 2016 the International Consortium of Journalists made its public debut by revealing and reporting on some 11.5 million documents leaked to it from the files of the Mossack Fonseca law firm. These told tales of politically connected criminals — or should we say criminally involved politicians? — who used the firms services to squirrel away funds and conceal evidence of wrongdoing. Other documents showed apparent tax evasion by the rich and famous.
The first politician to fall because of the scandal was Iceland’s premier, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson — who may not have committed any crime but along with his wife used the firm to conceal their investments. Likewise, British Prime Minister David Cameron ultimately had to step down not because he, but his father Ian, had used the firm’s services. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was forced out over his family’s concealment of an international real estatempire with the firm’s assistance. The king of Saudi Arabia led a star-studded list of at least 105 prominent politrically exposed persons (PEPs in the financial crimes watchdog business) who were Mossack Fonseca clients. The firm’s political clients were from left, right and center. Folks from Vladimir Putin’s inner circle were named but relatively few Americans were. That led to Russian media claims that The Panama Papers was a CIA operation. From subsequent offshore revelations, however, it just seems that the Americans tended to take their offshore asset manipulations to rival law firms in Panama or elsewhere.
The list of Panamanian PEPs associated with the scandal begane with Ramón Fonseca Mora, one of the firm’s principals and at the time of the revelations the chief of staff and minister without portfolio for forme president Juan Carlos Varela. (The two men have since fallen out.) In 2016 the overseas missions of Panama’s Ministry of Foreign Relations were liberally salted with members of the extended Mossack and Fonseca families. Beyond the family and party ties, the Panamanian legal profession rose up nearly in unison to defend the firm and its principals, generally in the name of protecting the principle of attorney-client privilege.
The firm was founded in Panama by German immigrant Jüergen Mossack in the 1970s, while Panama City native Ramón Fonseca Mora joined it in the 1980s. It was not just a Panamanian operation. The law firm or its subsidiaries had offices in the United States, China, several European countries, British jurisdictions, Brazil and several other Latin American countries. By some estimates it formed half of Panama’s offshore corporations held bty foreigners and was the world’s fourth-largest offshore law firm. The two founders have been de facto restricted from travel outside Panama, which does not extradite citizens, since at least October of 2020 when Germany issued an international warrant for their arrests. Even before then the odds were that some jurisdiction or another had issued a sealed accusation that could be made public if and when they were found to be abroad.
The protests, defenses and interposed delays may have worked in Panama, and still might get the 32 defendants off the hook. (Who ARE they? The prosecution isn’t saying but AFP reports that both Ramón Fonseca Mora and Jüergen Mossack are among the accused to go on trial.) What may somewhat work for public consumption in Panama, however, tends to draw only scorn abroad. International pressure against Panama, which includes financial sanctions imposed by various jurisdictions, has only increased since the stories broke.
The case to be tried at the Balboa Theater will be founded upon two general types of allegations. One is about money laundering through real estate transactions, which can take on many different forms. The other is about the creation of shell corporations — not only in Panama — and arranging them in chains with secret bank accounts in order to facilitate bribery and graft.
In her January 25 order Judge Baloisa Marquínez dropped charges against 13 defendants, nine of them based on statutes of limitations, and ordered 32 others to stand trial.
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
